The New "Leader of the Free World"

The Prime Minister of Israel gave a historical speech this week before a joint session of Congress which was both inspiring and alarming.

Benjamin Netanyahu is a leader. He speaks with moral clarity and manly boldness. I heard Mark Levin call him "the new leader of the free world," and regrettably I agree. Whittle also made the point:

Our current President pursues, among other things, a foreign policy of appeasement that weakens the security and strength of our nation. I believe this is intentional. He has proven himself lawless and untrustworthy. Now his administration is engaging in negotiations with a tyrannical government which is the world's leading sponsor of terror and is equally untrustworthy.

The actors are in place. The circus is underway. The music is playing.

I hope the negotiations crumble and dissolve. But I believe both sides will ultimately get what they want. And I fear for our nation, and the nation of Israel.

Our world, as we know it, is crumbling before our eyes. Godlessness is prevalent. Christians are mocked, persecuted, raped, enslaved, and executed. And sadly within the borders of the two beacons of hope... the USA and Israel... the most innocent among us are a slain by the hundreds of thousands - legalized infanticide - often paid for by our taxpayer money. But I digress.

I praise God for leaders like Netanyahu. And I pray for our nations. May God grant repentance, forgiveness, and reformation.

Here is the speech. I hope you will watch it:

The Life of the Justified

“The life of the justified is one of watchfulness.

...Forgiveness has altered all his circumstances and hopes. It has brought him into a new world, from which are shut out things he was formerly familiar with, and into which are introduced things which he knew not. He sees and hears what he never saw nor heard before; and he ceases to see and hear what but lately he delighted in. He expects changes, and wishes that they were come.

...The present has become less to him, the future more; and in that future the one absorbing object is the reappearing of Him, whom not having seen he loves.

...That the future should be a mere repetition of the present,--with a few scientific and political improvements,--is quite enough for the worldly man. But the man who, by his new connection with the cross, has been transported into a new region, is not content that it should be so.

...He wants a better future, and a more congenial world; he desires a state of things in which the new object of his love shall be all.”


Excerpt From: Bonar, Horatius. “The Everlasting Righteousness.” Monergism Books, 2011-11-05T22:59:54.841000+00:00. iBooks. 
This material may be protected by copyright.

Sacrificing Self

“Self-sacrifice ought not to seem much to those for whom Christ has died, and whom He now represents upon the throne. Generous deeds and gifts and words ought to be as natural as they are becoming in those who have been so freely loved, so abundantly pardoned, and so eternally blest.”


Excerpt From: Bonar, Horatius. “The Everlasting Righteousness.” Monergism Books, 2011-11-05T22:59:54.841000+00:00. iBooks. 
This material may be protected by copyright.

William Tyndale on Sovereign Election

"In Christ God loved us, His elect and chosen, before the world began, and reserved us unto the knowledge of his Son and of His holy gospel."

"Why does God open one man’s eyes and not another’s? Paul (Rom. 9) forbids to ask why; for it is too deep for man’s capacity. God we see is honoured thereby, and His mercy set out and the more seen in the vessels of mercy. But the popish can suffer God to have no secret, hid to Himself. They have searched to come to the bottom of His bottomless wisdom: and because they cannot attain to that secret, and be too proud to let it alone, and to grant themselves ignorant, with the apostle, that knew no other than God’s glory in the elect; they go and set up free-will with the heathen philosophers, and say that a man’s free-will is the cause why God chooses one and not another, contrary unto all the Scripture."

- From Ligonier Ministries

The Family

O SOVEREIGN LORD,

Thou art the Creator-Father of all men,
  for thou hast made and dost support them;
Thou art the special Father of those who know, love, and honor thee,
  who find thy yoke easy, and thy burden light,
  thy work honourable, thy commandments glorious.

But how little thy undeserved goodness has affected me!
How imperfectly have I improved my religious privileges!
How negligent have I been in doing good to others!

I am before thee in my trespasses and sins,
  have mercy on me,
  and may thy goodness lead me to repentance.

Help me to hate and forsake every false way,
  to be attentive to my condition and character,
  to bridle my tongue,
  to keep my heart with all diligence,
  to watch and pray against temptation,
  to mortify sin,
  to be concerned for the salvation of others.

O God, I cannot endure to see the destruction of my kindred.
Let those that are united to me in tender ties 
  be precious in thy sight and devoted to glory.

Sanctify and prosper my domestic devotion, instruction, discipline, example,
  that my house may be a nursery for heaven,
  my church the garden of the Lord,
    enriched with trees of righteousness of thy planting, for thy glory;
Let not those of my family who are amiable, moral, attractive,
  fall short of heaven at last;
Grant that the promising appearances of a tender conscience,
  soft heart, the alarms and delights of thy Word,
  be not finally blotted out,
  but bring forth judgment unto victory
    in all whom I love.


- The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

Mighty To Save

"Mighty to save."
Isaiah 63:1

(The Holy Scriptures, and Spurgeon, lay waste to the contemporary prevailing view of human "free will" and tell us of One who is free to will and do as He pleases.)

By the words "to save" we understand the whole of the great work of salvation, from the first holy desire onward to complete sanctification. The words are multum in parro: indeed, here is all mercy in one word. Christ is not only "mighty to save" those who repent, but he is able to make men repent. He will carry those to heaven who believe; but he is, moreover, mighty to give men new hearts and to work faith in them. He is mighty to make the man who hates holiness love it, and to constrain the despiser of his name to bend the knee before him. Nay, this is not all the meaning, for the divine power is equally seen in the after-work. The life of a believer is a series of miracles wrought by "the Mighty God." The bush burns, but is not consumed. He is mighty to keep his people holy after he has made them so, and to preserve them in his fear and love until he consummates their spiritual existence in heaven. Christ's might doth not lie in making a believer and then leaving him to shift for himself; but he who begins the good work carries it on; he who imparts the first germ of life in the dead soul, prolongs the divine existence, and strengthens it until it bursts asunder every bond of sin, and the soul leaps from earth, perfected in glory. Believer, here is encouragement. Art thou praying for some beloved one? Oh, give not up thy prayers, for Christ is "mighty to save." You are powerless to reclaim the rebel, but your Lord is Almighty. Lay hold on that mighty arm, and rouse it to put forth its strength. Does your own case trouble you? Fear not, for his strength is sufficient for you. Whether to begin with others, or to carry on the work in you, Jesus is "mighty to save;" the best proof of which lies in the fact that he has saved you. What a thousand mercies that you have not found him mighty to destroy!"

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning & Evening

Peril & Disquietude

SOVEREIGN COMMANDER OF THE UNIVERSE,

I am sadly harassed by doubts, fears, unbelief, in a felt spiritual darkness.

My heart is full of evil surmisings and disquietude, and I cannot act faith at all.
My heavenly Pilot has disappeared, and I have lost my hold on the Rock of Ages;
I sink into a deep mire beneath storms and waves, in horor and distress unutterable.

Help me, O LORD,
to throw myself absolutely and wholly on thee,
for better, for worse, without comfort, and all but hopeless.

Give me peace of soul, confidence, enlargement of mind,
morning joy that comes after night heaviness;
Water my soul richly with divine blessings;
Grant that I may welcome thy humbling in private
so that I might enjoy thee in public;
Give me a mountain top as high as the valley is low.

Thy grace can melt the worst sinner, and I am as vile as he;
Yet thou hast made me a monument of mercy,
a trophy of redeeming power;
In my distress let me not forget this.

All-wise God,
Thy never failing providence orders every event, sweetens every fear,
reveals evil's presence lurking in seeming good,
brings real good out of seeming evil,
makes unsatisfactory what I set my heart upon,
to show me what a short-sighted creature I am,
and to teach me to live by faith upon thy blessed self.

Out of my sorrow and night
give me the name Naphtali -
'satisfied with favor' -
help me to love thee as thy child,
and to walk worthy of my heavenly pedigree.


The Valley of Vision - A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions